SUBFIELD EXAMPLES


If you are not used to looking at MARC records, you may be confused by the different subfield delimiters. It is important to understand where the information in a subfield begins and also to be able to separate the subfield delimiter from the information there. Here is a brief discussion of definitions: http://lili.org/forlibs/ce/able/course8/06terms2.htm.

Note that many of the online catalogs do not indicate the subfield code a -- but the first entry in the field is always subfield code a unless otherwise indicated: 245 $a, for example


While we are looking at things, these records are all for the same book. Note the difference in the summary notes (520 $a) and also the subject headings (650 $a or 651 $a). For example, AMICUS doesn't use Harry Potter as a subject at all and the horrible SchoolCat record doesn't have any subject headings at all -- well, except for the 690 which is a local term -- (and, should have been in the 655 field anyway).



From Access Pennsylvania
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From AMICUS - The Canadian National Catalog
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From Library of Congress
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From SchoolCat

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Note that the record is not only terribly abbreviated but also Rowling's name is misspelled.